


The Hard To Get Game

by EdgyZephyr



Category: Adam (2009), Charlie Countryman (2013), Hannibal (TV)
Genre: #SpacedogsSummer, Alternate Universe, Chatting & Messaging, First Meetings, Jealousy, M/M, Misunderstandings, Neighbors, Phone Calls & Telephones, SpacedogsSummer
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-07
Updated: 2016-07-23
Packaged: 2018-07-22 05:15:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7421389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EdgyZephyr/pseuds/EdgyZephyr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Adam tries to get better with his social skills during summer. So, he joins a telephone chathouse where he talks to Nigel and Darko. Nigel doesn’t know why but he is fascinated by this remarkable boy and tries to meet him again in the chathouse.</p>
<p>What he doesn’t know is that he and Adam are neighbours, and that Nigel is the only one that doesn’t know.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The First Talk

A really big thank you goes to my beta [thymogenic](http://archiveofourown.org/users/thymogenic/pseuds/thymogenic)! Check her out :)

  


Adam had thought long about one topic. If he could learn how to talk in a job interview with his neighbour Beth, could he learn how to talk with strangers in completely new situations?

He wanted to ask Beth again, but then realized that maybe she would find it weird - he was certain that she was mad at him for the situation at the party of her friend where he just wanted to pee.  

As he googled _chat with strangers_ he came to a site called meetstrangers.com.

He was for a moment unsure if he really had to _meet_ strangers but then realized that luckily it was just a chat portal.

Adam knew he wasn’t good in at thisand he was uncertain if chatting with a stranger would be a nice experience. He straightened his back, took a deep breath, and pressed nervously on _chat with a stranger_. It took a while to load as he rubbed over his chest with his left hand.

 

_You are connected to a stranger._

 

**_Stranger_ **

heya

 

**You**

Hi! How are you, buddy?

 

**_Stranger_ **

?? yeah im alright thanks and u

 

**You**

I’m fine.

 

In this moment he started a little bit to panick because he didn’t know why the stranger used two question marks. And why he choose to demolish the english language in such a gruesome way.

He waited for a reply because he thought that the next question should come from the mysterious stranger. Adam didn’t want to talk too much as most people say he gets sometimes too excited. As he wanted to ask the stranger if he is still there, he got a reply from him.

 

**_Stranger_ **

thats kinda blezk

 

*bleak

 

_You disconnected._

 

He put his laptop on the couch table and thought that this had been a good experience. The stranger had been unnecessary rude but after some time he would get used to that, he was sure. It was now time for his mac’n’cheese. What a wild ride.

 

As he went to bed he googled witty comebacks for rude strangers and even found a top ten list. He wrote them on paper and put them up in the bathroom, in the kitchen and in the living room. He just made it on time to bed. He was proud of himself and fell asleep with a smile on his face.

 

\-----

 

He chatted with strangers for a whole week and made a list for the top ten list of things that happened the most online.

 

  1. People were rude.
  2. People often want to have sex.
  3. People often want to have sex in the chat.
  4. People often ask to see your penis.
  5. People often send pictures of their penises without your permission.
  6. People never ask for your name.
  7. People often want to know your nationality.
  8. People don’t want to talk about space.
  9. People often disconnect when you write too long texts.
  10. The comeback ‘You would be much more likeable if it wasn’t for that hole in your mouth that noise comes out of.’ does not work in a chat room. (And it’s rude)



  
  


He knew that strangers in his normal life don’t ask for sex or show him their penises but he thought that it was still a good idea to talk to strangers, so he searched for a way to really _talk_ to strangers, preferably on the phone.

He found a site called Chathouse with a free phone number on their page. The design of the page was horrible with green letters and a unsymmetric font. Adam remembered that he still hadn’t got Beth’s cellphone number.

He had talked with Beth again this afternoon. Adam had told her from his experiment and he felt bad afterwards because she seemed so uninterested and even denied his invitation to watch his favourite space documentary, something he watched first as a child and one that she would even understand! After he told her this, she was even more mad and he realized that he insulted her unintentionally. She just walked away and he went back to his flat, hoping that she would come back later.

Now the documentary was over and he didn’t have anything to do.

 

He called the number and put his cellphone on speaker. A fast song came up that was similiar to the ones in sex movies. He smiled and really hoped that no one wanted to have sex with him in this chathouse.

 

The mechanical voice gave him the instructions, wishing him fun. Adam pressed _0_ to connect with someone.

_Please, don’t want to have sex with me,_ he thought and then came the first stranger.

 

A groan and slick noises. “Moan for me, slut.”

Adam blushed and pressed _0_ , thinking, _Please, don’t want to have sex with me._

 

_\-------_

  


Nigel was pissed. Darko and Nigel were pissed, so there was nothing new. They were sitting in his nice, new flat with some not so nice and absolutely not new beers, drinking and laughing. There wasn’t even a reason to laugh but Nigel liked it after all this bullshit with Gabi and Charlie fucking Countryman.

“Eh, what’s up?”, Darko said, nearly screaming into the phone infront of them. He had called some number and now he was talking to some weird strangers, everyone mostly masturbating. Nigel never said something, just laughed as Darko tried to have a conversation with these fuckfaces.

“Nothing, at your place?”, said a female voice.

Darko flicked his tongue and answered:”There shouldn’t be any girls here.”

 

“Fuck you, asshole”, was the last thing they heard. The beep sound came again and they got connected to another fucking stranger. Nigel laughed.

“Fuck you, asshole.”, imitated Darko with a too high pitch voice, trying to copy the girl.

 

“I have a question: Are you masturbating right now or will you start masturbating during our conversation? If the answer is ‘yes’, please press _0.”_

 

They both looked perplexed at the phone, till a gentle “Are you still there?” came.

 

“No, honey, nobody will start masturbating here.”

He looked mockingly unsure to Nigel and added:”Let me ask for you: Nigel, will you start masturbating here?”

 

“Shut the fuck up, fucker.”

 

“He isn’t giving an answer, honey, so I think we can both assume that he will start jerking off during our wonderful conversation.”

 

There was a small pause where Nigel threw a pillow after Darko and Darko showed him his middlefinger.

“You are joking… or?”

 

“Of course, if this motherfucker starts to jerk here, I will throw him out with my own hands.”

 

“And was the joke funny because he didn’t give you a clear answer, so you could tell me that he might starts to masturbate while his reaction showed that this won’t happen?”, said the stranger, suddenly much more happier than before.

 

“You got it, Sherlock.”, Darko said, knowing that he got an interesting kid here.

 

“Fuck you, Watson?”

 

Nigel started laughing again while Darko turned red. “What did you say?”

“Fuck you, Watson.”, he said deadpan again. “This was a 80s slang term. It was actually a response to “No shit, Sherlock” but I thought that it would be fitting here too because you said Sherlock at the end of your sentence and I said Watson and they were one of the most famous duos of the world.”

 

“What’s your name?”, asked Nigel putting the beer away that he just had grabbed.

It was the first time that he was speaking directly to a caller.

 

“Adam… and you are Nigel.”

Darko threw himself on the couch. He laid back, listening to this remarkable boy who explained 80s slang terms to him.

“I’m Darko, nice to meet you, kid.”

 

Slowly the sun went down and let the room shine in a dark red.

"Hey, are you still there?”, asked Nigel because nothing came from Adams side anymore. He was a funny little fucker, there he was sure.

"Yes, I was just thinking."

"And about what?"

  
“Beth, my neighbor.”

 

“Trying to get you to talk is like pulling teeth! Problems to fuck her?”

 

“What makes you think that I want to have sex with her? I'm not interested in her.”

 

Darko clucked disapprovingly with his tongue. “Adam, Adam. You must  be interested in a woman to fuck her. It's about fucking. It’s fun.”

  


He lifted a blanket from the floor to pull it over him but put it back on the floor when he remembered that it was Nigel's apartment. Who knows what he had done with this ... or with whom he slept on the blanket.

“Could you stop using this word? Otherwise, you're quite nice.”

“Adam, gorgeous, you did not answer his question. Want to fuck her or not?” ,exclaimed Nigel grumbling, controlled by a deep desire. He himself did not know why he sounded so annoyed, a few minutes before the alcohol had made him laugh like a fucking idiot.

 

“Are you jealous, Nigel?”, asked Drako, laughing and at the same time wondering, why his friend was such obsessive. Again.

 

“Shut up, asshole. Do we get an answer?”

 

“Please, don’t put me under pressure. That was enough for today. Thank you.” And so Adam hung up. Nigel wondered why he was such an asshole while Darko grabbed the next beer.

 

***

 

Nigel came home bloody, gladly it wasn’t his but one of his favourite shirts was still ruined. Fucking dumb Russian district chief, thought he could steal some coke from him. He had to kill him but as he thought that may his subordinates thought also to fuck with him, he had to make it big and bloody and gruesome.

 

Nigel didn’t know why he asked Darko for the number of this stupid chathouse, it was definitely not because he wanted to chat and apologise to Adam, who would come to this really fucking stupid idea anyway; and he was not angry as Darko didn’t answer straight away - he always let his cup shatter on the ground! And he needed a new burner phone anyway, so it was fully on purpose to throw it against the floor.

 

He went downstairs to the fucking washing machines, noticing that he forgot his card, as he heard a voice.

“Is this blood?”

“Just shut the fuck up, please,” he groaned and turned around. A brown haired man stood in front of him. He was pretty with his curls and his blue eyes but he wasn’t in the mood to have a flirt with one of his neighbours.

 

Adam wondered why Nigel didn’t recognised him and why he was so fast to go away. He would have liked to chat with him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I try to be funny. And some stuff with Beth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, a big thank you for my beta thymogenic ! 
> 
> And I'm sorry that I didn't answered your comments, I will do it now! Thanks for the kudos, comments and subscribes :)

  
  
  
  


When Nigel came into the apartment, he thought that something was wrong. Before him his apartment spread in all his usual form (Darko had not yet managed to make everything dirty yet ) and it looked just as it should. But, it was not like a fucking home - it was too nice and impersonal for him. From the kitchen came a clanking sound and he cursed himself that he had forgot his gun in his haste. Fucking district chief, still fucking with him, even after his death. He quietly crept on, pressed with suppressed breath against the wall and braced himself. With one smooth and quick motion he rounded the corner. Before him stood ... nobody. He had only left the fucking window open. He went to the window to close it and felt a painful sting on his foot. Great, he had stepped on the broken cup. His brother probably would have thought of a pseudo poetic quote at this moment, but he was concentrated on the blood that was slowly dripping from his foot. 

His brother would have also known what to do now. 

“Fuck you, you fucking piece of shit,” he said while walking to his bathroom. He tried to clean the wound and remove any embedded shards of glass. In the end he just put a bandaid on his foot. 

 

\---

 

Adam saw Beth at the stairs, bringing her groceries into her apartment. 

“Hello, Beth, what are you doing?”

He was sure that this was a great start into the conversation but Beth seemed to get angry so he changed the topic. He took a small piece of paper out of his pocket and tried to give it to her. 

“Here is my phone number. Maybe you might want to call me sometime.”

She didn’t reach out for the paper and he realized that her hands were occupied. Should he help her or would it be uncomfortable for her when he tried to do this? Beth was smiling which was great because she had a lovely smile but also because it showed that he had done nothing wrong. Adam put his number into one of her bags and then opened the door for her. He thought that it was a good compromise. 

 

Adam was suprised to see Nigel again. His last meeting with him was only a couple of hours away. His shirt wasn’t bloody but he realized that now his shoe had blood on the side.

“Your shoe is bloody.”

“Oh god, it’s not. Just go away. I’m in a hurry.”

“It is. Do you have a different definition of bloody?” Beth giggled and went through the door while Nigel’s face turned into a terrifying grimace.

“What do you fucking want from me?”

Adam stepped back and was confused. “Well, do you have a different definition of bloody?” 

He saw that Nigel was really angry - his arm flexed and he thought that he would get punched in the next moment - as a phone ringed. Nigel sighed, got his phone and talked in a strange language. Adam thought that it sounded very melodious.

As he finished his call, he stared at Adam suspiciously. “Why are you still here?”, he asked slowly. He didn’t want to fight Adam anymore which was great for him. 

He started rubbing his chest as he tried to talk to him again. 

 

“I wanted to be friendly and ask if I should help you with your wound. You seem to be slightly irritated.” 

“Slightly? You made me look like a fucking idiot in front of her! Of course I’m slightly irritated.” He made some strange motions with his hands at the word slightly. These were gestures - something that he didn’t know how to interpret and also didn’t know how to train identifying them. Maybe he could train with Nigel after that. Maybe there were books about this topic or even videos. When he went to his apartment with Nigel, cleaned his wound, cleaned the space he occupied, after that had some small talk with him, it would be too late to search for videos and train with him.

 

He eventually realized later that he could have trained with Nigel instead of having small talk. 

“So you said you wanted to help me with my woun-”, he interrupted Nigel fast.

“No, I said that I wanted to ask you if you need help. But I thought about it again and I don’t have any time for that. I have to watch some videos. It was nice to meet you.” 

The last bit was from a chat and he was happy that it was so passend in this context. 

 

Nigel thought that this guy could be a bigger asshole than himself. 

  
  


\---

 

There were in fact videos for gestures in different languages. All of them were for non-natives but there would be no problem to learn them as a native English speaker. 

He also found out what Nigel did. Wikipedia helped him a lot.  

 

_ Air quotes are virtual quotation marks formed in the air with one's fingers when speaking. _

_ Air quotes are often used to express satire, sarcasm, irony or euphemism, among others, and are analogous to scare quotes in print. _

 

Adam thought that there should be also a way to add an exclamation mark or a question mark through gestures to give the speech more impact but it seemed that they were non-existent. As he tried to analyse the scene, he realized why Nigel seemed to be much more angry at him. He thought that he was making fun of him! It was weird how something like that could happen. 

 

In the evening, he ate his dinner, surfed a little bit on the internet and then went to bed. 

  
  


\---

 

“You are such a dumbass, I swear.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Nigel groaned while the next person pressed  _ 0. _ They should try not to swear so often. 

Darko gave him the number of the chathouse with a suspicious look in the afternoon - after making some jokes about his bloody shoe - and then came in the evening to his flat, knowing that Nigel would wait before he called the number. Nigel couldn’t throw him out and Darko was bitching the whole time. 

“You know, my neighbour is a fucking dumbass. First, he made me look like an idiot in front of a hot girl, after that he was a sarcastic, know-it-all little shit. I would have loved to fucking punch this idiot but I couldn’t.”

“Why didn’t you do it?” asked Darko. Nigel talked about jerks the whole time - Darko asked himself sometimes if he knew that he was the king of jerks. 

Certainly not, and he would shut his mouth about this topic. He didn’t want to end like the stupid district chief. 

 

As there was no answer, he kicked Nigel with his foot. They were on the couch without beer which was a shame. 

“Why didn’t you do it?”

 

“He was pretty. He reminded me of Gaby, somehow.” 

Darko put his head back and laughed loud.

“You are kidding me. You have to be kidding me. First this weird Adam guy and now your neighbour. Are you sure you weren’t just angry at Gaby that she was allowed to fuck Charlie?” he asked.

 

Nigel didn’t even care who was on the phone as he talked. “If you don’t fucking stop right now, I’ll get my gun and will fucking kill you.” 

Darko was sure that he wouldn't kill him but he still kept his pretty mouth shut. The callers changed and changed, with no Adam in sight. 

Nigel tried to not seem angry only because he made a shitty remark. “Relax. No problem if you want to fuck some guys. Even shitty dumbasses that kinda remind you of your ex-wife...”

 

Nigel groaned, knowing that there was no chance that Adam would be at the same time in the same chat as him and hang up while the sun made his final move and vanished for the night. 

“No way I would fuck my neighbour. Everyone who remembers me of Gaby can’t be good for me. And Adam… I don’t know. Maybe if he’s hot.”

 

“If you ever meet him again.” Darko got his coat and went away. 

The next day Nigel wished that he had stayed for the night. 

 


End file.
